How do you take care of dead deer?

How do you guys handle dead deer? If there are other answers I didn't think of, please post a comment in the thread. I learned going full skinned and gutted, taking it to a processor, but have since revised my ways. I do donate some meat every year so those are different from the ones I am going to keep too.

I gut it on the ground and take it to the processor whole with skin.

I do two of the six. Take meat in the gutless manner and then process the meat at the house.

I rarely gut anymore.
Hang by back legs, skin down to base of head, cut slit in between back legs to get tenders out, cut out back straps, front quarters, and then the two hind quarters. Trim off all good meat for ground meat or sausage and take entire body with the guts in it to the dump.

I need to try the gutless method, may keep me little cleaner.

Depends on where I'm at. Most deer I hang(ungutted), then skin, qtr. This year so far it gutless and only skin where I needed too

Most go to the processor. If I do it myself, it's typically the gutless method/skin from the knees up.

Usually gut on ground hang by hind legs skin then cut off front legs, debone the rib cage hanging and then cut out the pelvis and knock the hind legs off at the hock and onto ice/in fridge.

The doe I shot last weekend I broker the premier rule of knife safety and cut the hell out of my hand. I bandaged it up gave the knife to my brother who so kindly finished the gut and skin job for me and I helped cook dinner.

Remove the meat I want, take that to the processor.

I just watched a video on the gutless method. I think I’ll try it out this weekend. I hate to change what works but it looks simple and better than the way I’ve always done it. Maybe change is a good thing. I’ll report back.

Learned my processor will take them without even being field dressed if it’s a fresh kill. They’re 25-30 minutes away and I’m lazy, so…..

If your camp has someplace to hang them, it is very easy to hang them and skin without gutting. Once skinned, you remove quarters and backstraps. You enter the guts just enough to get to the tenderloins, and then let the carcass with guts fall into a big bucket. That is by far the quickest and cleanest method I have found, but you have to have a hanging rack, and preferably a winch or pulley.

I’ve used gutless on hogs. They smell bad enough without opening them up.

The only time I use the gutless method is if somebody gut shoots one and especially if not recovered for a while. Crazy how so many folks here don't want to gut them lol. There's nothing like the feel of warm guts on your hands on a cold day. Anyway, to each their own.

Sometimes I gut on the ground, sometimes I hang & then gut keeping any desired organ meat...and always hang by the back legs. Then skin, quarter, & pack on ice to take home for processing. The ribs are either de-boned for sausage meat, or I'll saw them off the carcass/saw in half/season them up good and throw them on the pit for a little snack.

They smell a lot better on the inside than the outside lol. Plus, I love pork ribs & fajitas.

It is interesting to see what everyone does.

I hang by a hitch based winch, skin down the legs through the hind quarters and take those muscle groups, then cut down the back and take the back straps, and finally enter the abdomen enough to get the tenders. The rest goes for the buzzards and coyotes. That is for one I take home.

For donating meat deer, I will hang, gut, and then take with hide on to a local processor who donates the meat to folks who need it. He does that for free.

Of course I get a live weight before and then take appropriate parts for the wall as needed....

If I'm not lazy, I'll skin and quarter the gutless method before taking to the processor. If its late or really cold and/or I'm lazy, I just gut and take to the processor.

Done it every which-a-way, but I decided not long ago to keep everything I can, so now I hang, gut, quarter, keep the ribs, cut out the heart, and cook the heart and tenderloins together for the next meal. They never get frozen. No processor.... I have trust issues!

Hang by hind legs. Gut, cut tenderloins out, cut backstraps out, trim neck meat & ribs for grinding, cut off shoulders, split hind quarters, and all goes on ice in cooler immediately. Then take it all but backstraps & tenderloins to Kuby's in Dallas to get made into great sausages.

It all depends on who is with me. All I do is shoot them, usually our son or one of our nephews are with me, and one of them does all of the gutting etc.

I’m only a year away from this. My 13YO is almost 6’ and strong as a man. He just needs a little more coaching to be able to do it all himself. That’s the way things should be done!

Hang deer head down, skin, drop guts in a bucket, and quarter. I bag the quarters in trash sacks. Backstrap and loins go into a zip lock and every goes on ice. If warm I open drain on ice chest. I do not like water touching meat. I process myself. When I get home I cut hams into roasts and debone shoulders. Roasts, backstraps, and loins get vacuum packed. The rest is for sausage or grinder.

Way it aught to be. My old many only has to mess with dead deer for pictures or if he slips up and shoots one when we arent there. I dont think he has loaded, gutted, skinned or deboned a deer since he taught my brother and I the trade. He finally had to re teach himself to clean fish now that him and mom go all the time without us lol.

My hang up with the gutless method is you cant do it and take the flank/rib meat. It makes grind and sausage just like everything else. Also I like to be able to get them back to camp pull the guts out and let them hang to chill or till after the evening hunt etc. and take care of it then.

Been doing the gutless for years. Can do the gutless with it hanging or on ground. The only time I gut my deer or pigs is on public hunts where it’s required.

Depends on how bad my hangover is.

I learned the gutless from a hunter at Colorado Bend SP about 5 years ago and use it whenever possible. Last time I gutted deer was on an Axis hunt where I was getting a shoulder mount and my son wanted a rug with his doe.

I shot a deer this morning. Tried the gutless, for first time on a deer. Done it to hogs.

Since I was alone, I just loaded it on tailgate. It wasn’t perfect. But wasn’t hard, I will get better. I will no longer gut, it’s quartered nicely in a cooler.

Congrats on getting you one down!
And you will get fast at it for sure and if you can hang them, it gets even easier to do this way. My boy can have a deer in an icechest in 15-20 minutes most times unless it is a buck that needs to be caped cleanly!

I tend to hang, head down and skin, gutless method and then take shoulders and hind quarters to the house for processing myself. If I have more than 2 to process, front shoulders and maybe a rear quarter to two go to processor. Last year in the hill country we had 3 does on the ground before 8am, I took a bunch to the processor.

What do all you gutless peeps do about the neck?

There are no guts in the neck?

Trim out the neck as im doing here

When my wife shot a buck and it was 14 degrees, I was damn happy to stick my hands in the guts for warmth. I always gut them because I take all the meat to the processor and I what the heart. Pigs I will only skin and quarter.

Man, if you've never had fresh fried pork ribs you're sure missing out bud. Saw each rack off the carcass (the bigger the pig the better), saw them in half longways, then separate each rib with a knife. Rinse them off/pat dry then drop them into a pot of hot peanut oil and fry until crispy. Dump each batch into a big bowl/season with Cajun seasoning (Magic Dust) to your liking/shake them up good just like you do cracklins. Lay them suckers out on a wire rack or paper towels and watch how fast they disappear. I bet money you'll be gutting them after that! I like them better like this than I do BBQ ribs, and I love me some BBQ ribs.

after I learned how easy, no way I was paying processor

The one I shot today, I quartered and took out back straps. Took two decent size cuts from each side of neck. I have never done this method and was alone. It took me about 45 minutes, I’m
Not that good with a knife.

I’m gonna try Kubys, will be taking it there tomorrow.

Sorry, but just wanted to add....pigs in the 200-300 + lb range saw them longways into 3-4 strips per side depending on size. The more meat & fat on the rib, the shorter finger ribs you want and sometimes once fried good n crisp I like to toss in hot sauce just like chicken wings. If you fry them right the outside will be real crispy but the meat inside will be tender and delicious. On a big pig, I like to do 1 half seasoned, and the other half in wing sauce/hot sauce. Good eats.

I'll have to try this when the hogs move back into my place. I cook my deer ribs in the crock pot 8 hours and then grill with sauce for a few minutes. I like them but they are not the best....but I don't like to waste anything.

I want to try the gutless method, but I feel like watching a YouTube video on the gutless method will leave out some steps that I need once I'm out in the field attempting it.

There are not as many steps as you think unless you are saving the cape. I hang them in the tree unzip his suit, follow the brown on white borders of the shoulders and hams to the center of deer then zip from butt to chin. cut off the ankles, peel down the skin enough to wrap a golf ball or rock in then loop a cable and pull tight. Tie the other end to the truck and drive the skin off. Takes about 3 minutes and minimal hair. Longer and dirtier to save the cape. Now just cut out the backstraps, and front shoulders. While the deer is hanging by the feet cut the membrane by the hams and ribs to get the tenders out before taking the hams, gravity will pull the stomach and entrails down so you can see them. From that angle you can get the flank, heart, liver and kidneys if you want. I take a cordless saws-all to cut the hooves, neck, then lower the torso into the gut bucket and cut the back end leaving the hams in the air. Clean the anal cavity out and saws-all straight down splitting the spine and hams. take the hams down cut off the feet. I put the gut bucket on the tailgate before cutting the torso from the hams. No lifting that way.

Interesting stuff here. To my knowledge, its always been the norm for record keeping on any type managed place, to get the "field dressed weight". If you go gutless then I assume you either dont keep records or you just estimate the weight of the guts....? Nothing wrong with not keeping records, but im curious about those that do keep records and if you gut or not.
Doesnt MLD require record keeping with field dressed weight?

We used to keep records when it was leased but now the place is ours we don't see the need but I see the point.

Had to go gutless this morning, shot a doe and the bullet turned and ripped through the guts and out the back flank. Never had one do that.

Where legal I use the gutless method and bone them where they drop and only bring out the meat. But I can't do that here in TX which I personally think is a pretty dumb law because I see no reason to bring out the head of a doe when I can simply leave a tit on a small piece of hide attached to the meat to prove it was a doe. I also don't hunt in an AR county so I really don't see why I can't simply remove the antlers or leave a nut attached for a buck.

If I kill one here in TX then I normally skin the deer and do the gutless method and remove the quarters, straps, loins and as much grind as I can. I also skin out the head to remove as much weight as I can since I hunt public ground on foot and pack the meat out on a packframe. Last year my pack out was a little over 3 miles and every ounce of weight I can cut makes a difference.

I do my own processing including making sausage.


Why not? After you get the quarters and backstrap off one side you can bone out the ribs by running a sharp knife between them, take off the flank, get the tenderloin and simply roll the carcass over and do the same on the other side. You don't lose a scrap of meat with the gutless method unless you are too lazy to get it all.

we have a reasonably good place to hang deer and wash them out. concrete pad with a winch and cable, running water, etc. we tend to pick deer up in the field and bring them back to camp where we gut them on the ground and then hang them up for washing and skinning/quartering. We tend to debone he ribcage as it hangs as its otherwise pretty bulky to fit into an ice chest or refrigerator. Other places i've hunted where there were no facilities at all we still gutted deer on the ground usually wherever we recovered them and carried water in an old milk jug to wash up some. after that deer went into truck bed and went home to hang in the garage for hanging and skinning, etc. its just the way i learned, and i'm a creature of habit.

i've pondered what i would do if i was on some sort of walk-in hunt where taking a vehicle or sorts to pick up game would not be an option and field quartering so it could be packed out would be a necessity. I've never done anything like that except for some hogs once. The hog we shot wasn't very big so it wasn't an issue.

Personally, I gut my deer as soon as possible on the ground. I will then hang it in a tree or droop it over brush in a shady spot. I will pry rib cage open facing the breeze. Basically, I'm trying to get the meat cooling down as quick as possible. I then get the truck and get as close as I can but I always try to hunt in the roughest areas on the lease so often it is a long haul to get the deer back to the truck. Once at camp, I'll hang it. About 50/50 as to head or feet first. Makes no difference to me. Then I'll skin it. If its cold, which it seems to never be anymore I'll bag it with two twin sheets sewed together and let it hang making sure no sun light will be getting on it. If its warm, its gets quartered and put on ice.

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